{"id":82817,"date":"2022-02-04T11:22:49","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T16:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=82817"},"modified":"2022-03-15T12:16:08","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T16:16:08","slug":"genealogy-tips-how-do-you-search-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-tips-how-do-you-search-a-name.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Tips: How Do You Search a Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article \u2013 the second in a new series presenting genealogy tips \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega shows various approaches to searching on an ancestor\u2019s name. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

How do you search your ancestor\u2019s name? I know that may seem like an obvious question, but the answer can be important when we consider why you can\u2019t find an ancestor. Searching a genealogy website like GenealogyBank<\/a> is much more than just entering a name.<\/p>\n

This is a multi-layered subject that we will explore in future blog articles, but for now, let\u2019s consider a basic search on a female ancestor\u2019s name with someone from my family history, using the GenealogyBank search engine for our example.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Your Ancestor\u2019s Name?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, before we click on the Search button on the GenealogyBank search engine, we need to consider what our ancestor\u2019s name is. For this example, I\u2019ll use my 2nd great-grandmother, Marie Ann Bouffard (1864-1943), who spent much of her life in Canada and part of her married life in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

To begin, I did a basic search from the GenealogyBank homepage on the name Marie Bouffard. I chose to begin this search with her maiden name. I received 95 total historical newspaper results.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t too many results to go through them one by one, but since she spent the American part of her life in one state, I decided to narrow my search to the state of Massachusetts in order to narrow down the number of hits. I then received 40 hits. Unfortunately, after exploring all 40 results, none were relevant.<\/p>\n

You may think that\u2019s the end of my search. But \u2013 it\u2019s just the beginning. There are other ways to search for her.<\/p>\n

I could search her full name: Marie Ann Bouffard. I could also search by just her surname or her first initial and surname. I did try those searches but they too didn\u2019t result in any relevant hits.<\/p>\n

Now, you may be wondering why I was searching on her maiden name. After all, although she spent part of her married years in Massachusetts, her younger years were in Canada. My hope was that by searching her maiden name, I would find results in a U.S. newspaper that mentioned her parents or siblings. (As it turned out, as I will explain in a moment, this actually was the case \u2013 or, at least, it would have been were it not for a misspelling of the family name. See below.)<\/p>\n

However, I know that she was alive in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when married women used their husband\u2019s names. So, I need to search by her husband\u2019s name, which might provide me results for both him and her.<\/p>\n

Her husband, my 2nd great-grandfather, was Pierre Philibert (1866-1943). I conducted another basic search from the homepage, but this time on Pierre Philibert\u2019s name. This search brought up 53 results in the historical newspaper collection.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

When I narrowed my search to the state of Massachusetts, there were 5 results. One of those results was from a newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts. That wasn\u2019t where I believed Marie and Pierre lived, but I decided to click on it anyway (a good lesson in not making assumptions). This particular newspaper article was an obituary for a Mrs. Lemieux, a name I didn\u2019t recognize.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 12 October 1942, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scanning the newspaper article, I noticed a mention for Mrs. Pierre Philibert of Lowell (a city that I knew that Marie lived in) toward the bottom.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 12 October 1942, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reading the names of the other survivors, it became clear that Mrs. Lemieux was Marie\u2019s sister \u2013 and that sister had a married name I didn\u2019t recognize, thus a marriage I didn\u2019t know about.<\/p>\n

Genealogy Tip:<\/em><\/strong> Note that this paragraph spells the brothers\u2019 surname as \u201cBoufard,\u201d which is why I didn\u2019t find this article when I searched on Marie\u2019s maiden name Bouffard. A good reminder to keep on trying variations of your ancestors\u2019 names.<\/p>\n

I also tried searching on Marie Philibert, just in case she was listed in a newspaper article with that name. Although there were some historical newspaper hits, none were relevant.<\/p>\n

There were no other historical newspaper articles for Marie or Pierre. (At least, not yet: since GenealogyBank is constantly adding new newspaper titles and more content from existing newspapers, there could be articles about them in the future \u2013 so I need to periodically do new searches.)<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, they did spend some of their lives together in Canada. Both were born there, and spent some of their married life there. GenealogyBank has only U.S. newspapers<\/a>, and I wouldn\u2019t expect to find coverage of their daily lives in Canada. My best bet is that one day they\u2019ll turn up in articles from Massachusetts newspapers that GenealogyBank will add.<\/p>\n

And what about their lives in Massachusetts? A quick search of GenealogyBank\u2019s newspaper list (click on Browse at the top of the GenealogyBank homepage and then search Newspaper by State) shows that there are Lowell, Massachusetts, newspapers in both the historical newspaper collection and the obituaries collection.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, they are not for the dates that Marie and Pierre were alive. However, like Mrs. Lemieux\u2019 obituary showed, that doesn\u2019t mean that Marie won\u2019t be in any newspaper found on the website. I need to start looking at the non-Massachusetts results in case she is mentioned in obituaries for her siblings or children.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned, GenealogyBank is always adding newspapers \u2013 so in the future I may find their obituaries or other articles about their family. I need to set an alert for my searches of Marie and Pierre\u2019s name, a very handy feature that GenealogyBank provides.<\/p>\n

GenealogyBank has more than just newspapers. They have government documents and records, historical books, the Social Security Death Index, and the U.S. Census. I did find an additional result in the U.S. Census, so remember that you\u2019ll want to explore results in other collections in addition to the historical newspapers. You\u2019ll find these at the top of your results screen.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Your Ancestor\u2019s Name?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are other ways to search a name and we will discuss those in future blog articles, but the lesson for this article is to make sure you search on all versions of a person\u2019s name. And remember: if you are looking for a married woman, don\u2019t forget to also search for her husband. You might just find her.<\/p>\n

Related Article:<\/strong><\/p>\n